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Well folks Movember 2011 is over and I sure am glad to have that creepy looking smudge of hair gone from my upper lip. But in saying that I’m always happy to join in on the fun and support a great cause, and this year was our best so far raising over $500 in aid of prostate cancer and mens depression. Now that we have removed our ‘Mo’s’ you can enjoy having a laugh at the photo’s below. But just remember we will be back bigger and better next year!

If you think our efforts were worthy of slinging a few donation dollars our way it is not to late to donate. Head to our Movember team page and help us to continue to support this great cause.

Todays workout is going to be well, torturous to say the least so strap your self in and get ready for some pain courtesy of our old mate ‘The Mule’ the trusty sled we keep down at the South Melbourne Personal Training Studio.

There are 2 exercises you have to know for this work out.

The Sled Push: Basically pushing the sled, get as low as you can keeping you back flat and parallel to the floor and use you legs to push and propel the sled forward.

The Sled Pull: Start standing on the end of the sled holding onto the handles, without letting go jump back then in a rowing motion pull the sled towards you.

The workout will be 10 minutes of pushing and pulling the sled back and forth over a 10 m track (push one way, pull the other).

The aim is to complete as many laps as you can in the 10 minute challenge.

Have Fun. Post your lap total below once you have completed the workout

Monitoring your heart rate during exercise is a fantastic way to judge the intensity of your workout. It also provides you with some excellent information as to how much your fitness is improving from session to session, day to day or week to week.

Heart rate monitors measure your heart rate in Beats Per Minute (BPM) which surprise, surprise in the number of times your heart is beating in one minute.

For the average person, your heart rate while at rest is around 70 BPM. But the heart like any other muscle can be trained and improved, so as you train hard and your fitness improves, you will begin to see a gradual decline in your resting heart rate. But dont worry that doesn’t mean you are slowly dying! This happens because your heart becomes more efficient at pumping blood & oxygen around your body to muscles and organs that need them. Doing the same job with less effort and therefore actually creating less stress for your heart.

You can also use measures of your heart rate to set out your intensity during exercise. The easiest way to do this is to firstly establish your theoretical heart rate maximum. Sounds complex but all you have to do is just subtract your age from the standardised figure of 220 (e.g. if you are 35 years old it would be 220—35 = 185. Your theoretical maximum heart rate is 185 B.P.M) Using that figure you can set out various exercise intensities that will all have slightly different effects on the results you receive from your training. We shall have a look at 4 exercise intensities and their training effects.

60—70% of HR Max

Exercise at this intensity is likely to be at a reasonably comfortable level. The benefits you will receive include improvements in muscular endurance allowing your muscles to be capable of performing tasks for longer, your aerobic fitness also improves due to increases in your respiratory capabilities . This level of heart rate is often used as the recovery stage in interval circuits. or for longer duration steady state exercise. Due to the slower speed and lower intensity of this zone the slow and efficient oxidisation of fats will the the primary energy source utilised through out.

70—80% of HR Max

This is the intensity that most people will generally find themselves exercising in, at this intensity you be able to develop your body’s cardiovascular system, improving your ability to deliver the oxygen required to working muscles and remove the bi-product carbon dioxide from the working muscles. In this zone carbohydrate is the main fuel source due to the higher intensity and increased demand for faster burning energy, but as your fitness and energy utilisation begins to improve, more and more fat will also begin to be used to help spare valuable carbohydrates for higher intensity activity.

80—90% of HR Max

Now we are starting to really push ourselves and get into some higher intensity activity. In addition to the benefits you will be getting from the lower HR zones and largely due to the increased utilisation of carbohydrates as the main fuel source you can also start to push the boundries of your lactate tolerance. Lactate is a bi-product that is produced as a result of your body utilising carbohydrates as a energy source. The burning feeling you get in your muscles during a hard session is lactate taking effect, by continually putting yourself under the duress that lactate imposes you can increase your tolerance to it and keep working harder for longer.

90-100% of HR Max

This is when you know you are working hard! This kind of intensity takes a lot of effort to reach and sustain over a long period of time, so it is mainly used as part of high intensity interval training or in competitive circumstances. Yet again carbohydrates will be the main fuel used to provide the energy requirements for this kind of activity but only highly trained individuals will be capable of maintaining this intensity for longer periods of time as the high carbohydrate utilisation also means there is a rapid production of our old friend lactate making it pretty tough to push continue to push through.

Give heart rate training a try and let us know what zone you got up to and how you felt, we would love to hear how you go.

For more information on heart rate monitors and where to get them contact nathan.tieppo@revopt.com.au

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed a little bit of sunshine, but you should be ready for another man up session to get your week kick started.

This weeks workout is going to be using suspension training to get you nice and sore all over! So using a TRX, rings or any other similar bit of equipment. The aim will be to complete the following circuit in the quickest time possible.

10 x Horizontal Row– Start by laying on the floor with your chest underneath the handles, keep your body flat and pull your chest up to inbetween the handles (as in picture). Lower yourself down to just off the floor

10 x Single Leg Pistol Squats – Stand on one leg holding the handles with the opposite leg in front of you, lower yourself down into a squat position using the handles to help maintain balance. Stand back up making sure not to pull yourself up on the handles, use only your leg strength.

10 x Pike Press – Place your feet in the stirrups underneath the handles and assume a push up position, keeping your legs straight raise your hips as high up as you can so your torso is vertical. Lower your torso down to the floor and press back up, return to the push up position

10 x Rear Leg Suspended Lunges – Place one foot inside the stirrups, step forward with the opposite leg and perform a lunge dropping your rear knee to just above the floor and stand back up.

10 x Jackknife Push Ups – Place both feet in the stirrups and get into a push up position, perform a push up then bring your knees up to your chest and extend them back out again.

There has been a lot of talk lately about high altitude training, particularly in the AFL with teams like Collingwood and North Melbourne heading overseas to try and get an added competitive advantage using this method.

But what exactly are the proposed benefits of training at a high altitude?

Being in high altitude doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go to the highest mountain that you can find; it is all relevant to the elevation of the location above sea level.

The main reason athlete do altitude training is all to do with oxygen. Your body needs oxygen to function, in order to live and breath, and for your muscles to contract to get you moving oxygen is a key part of the equation.

Two statements below form the basis for the theory of altitude training

The harder you work, the more oxygen your body needs!

And:

As altitude increases, oxygen density and pressure decreases! This makes it harder to breathe.

At high altitude it is harder for you to breathe in and distribute oxygen to your muscles, meaning your body needs to work harder and become more efficient at utilising the oxygen supply available. Once you return to your normal oxygen rich altitude, as your body has become super effective at using oxygen, it allows your lungs and muscles to work less and produce a greater output, which will conserve energy and improve performance.

As with all training principles, the benefits will not be seen if it used as a one-off training session; the process must be repeated to be worthwhile, which is why teams spend a couple of weeks on a high altitude camp and repeat the process each year (and even mid season). To get the continued benefit of altitude training there are also machines that can help simulate high altitude environments by filtering oxygen out of the inhaled air. These can be large training rooms, or even small machines connected to a breathing apparatus. These are generally used by elite athletes as long term methods of maintaining the effects that the high altitude camps create.

Did you know?

The high altitude of the 1968 Mexico Olympics has been credited as one of the reasons there were some many records broken. In the field events of the athletics, there was an Olympic or World record set in every throwing or jumping type event. Lower oxygen density means less resistance, allowing athletes to throw and jump further. Conversely, though, it was said to be a great struggle for the endurance athletes who found it harder to breathe.